Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, will present a talk, "Saudi Arabia and the Global Community," at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16, in Bartos Theater.
The event is a special Starr Forum, hosted by the Center for International Studies and moderated by Institute Professor John Deutch.
Prince Turki, 61, has held several national and international leadership and diplomatic roles.
A member of the Saudi royal family, he was appointed an advisor to the Royal Court in 1973. He advanced to serve as director general of the kingdom's main foreign intelligence service, the General Intelligence Directorate, from 1977 to 2001.
Prince Turki received wide media attention in 1998 when he sought unsuccessfully to have Osama bin Laden, whom he had met in the 1980s, extradited from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia.��
In 2002, he was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom, and in 2005, he was appointed ambassador to the United States.
Prince Turki speaks frequently on relations between Saudi Arabia and other nations, on terrorism and on developments within Saudi Arabia.
In a major 2005 speech, he described oil as a "strategic global commodity, vital to world economic stability. The kingdom's commitment to maintaining balance in this market is an intrinsic part of its commitment to fairly playing its part in world affairs."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 8, 2006 (download PDF).
